East Asian Monsoon

The East Asian monsoon carries humid air from the Indian and Pacific Oceans to East Asia . It affects about a third of the total population of the planet, affecting the climate of Japan (including Okinawa), Korea , Taiwan , Hong Kong , Macau , the Philippines , Indochina , most of mainland China , as well as the southeastern part of the Russian Far East . The engine of the monsoon is the temperature difference between the Asian continent and the Pacific Ocean. The East Asian monsoon is divided into warm and wet monsoon in summer and cold and dry winter monsoon. It is the cold and dry winter monsoon that is responsible for the deposition of aeolian dust and soil formation, which led to the creation of the Loess Plateau .

In most years, the monsoon flow shifts according to a very predictable model - from southeast winds at the end of June, resulting in a significant amount of rainfall on the Korean Peninsula and Japan (in Taiwan and Okinawa, this flow begins in May). This leads to a reliable surge in precipitation in July and August. However, this model sometimes fails leading to drought and crop failure. In winter, northeasterly winds are established, and the monsoon precipitation band returns south, which leads to intense rainfall in the south of China and Taiwan.

The East Asian monsoon is known as jangma ( 장마 ) in Korea . In Japan, the monsoon border as it moves north in the spring is called bai-u , when during the fall months the border recedes back south, it is called shurin . ^[1] Beyond Japan and Korea, the monsoon border usually takes the form of a quasi-stationary front , separating the cold air masses associated with the Okhotsk maximum in the north from the hot moist air masses associated with the subtropical ridge in the south. After the monsoon border passes north of this place, it is not uncommon for the daytime temperature to exceed 32 ° C with a dew point of 24 ° C or higher.